Russian anti-Kremlin activist freed after conviction overturned

Russia has released anti-Kremlin activist Ildar Dadin from a Siberian prison after the Supreme Court overturned his conviction on Wednesday.

He is the first person to be freed after being jailed under new rules making some forms of non-violent protest a criminal offence .

He was sentenced to three years behind bars in December 2015 for staging a series of peaceful, one-man protests against the Russian government.

While incarcerated, Dadin became somewhat of a cause celebre among opponents of the Kremlin, who say their right to dissent is being steadily crushed.

Conducting demonstrations without official permission was punishable by a fine before mass protests in Moscow that followed President Vladimir Putin’s election in 2012 prompted a rule change.

Now, demonstraters can receive prison sentences for staging protests more than twice in one hundred and eighty days.